Exposure to stressful events can precipitate and/or exacerbate various types of affective disorders such as depression and anxiety. Physical activity increases stress resistance and reduces depression and anxiety. For example, voluntary freewheel running increases stress resistance and conveys antidepressant/anxiolytic effects in various animal models of affective dysregulation, including """"""""learned helplessness"""""""" (LH). LH is an acute behavioral state produced after exposure to uncontrollable, but not controllable, stress. Evidence suggests that LH is due to activation of a neural circuit that produces intense stimulation of serotonin (5HT) neurons of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). This intense 5HT drive results in sensitization of the DRN 5HT system. The neurobiological mechanisms for the protective effect of physical activity on LH remain unknown. Results from our preliminary studies suggest that physical activity (voluntary freewheel running) prevents LH by changing the DRN 5HT response to uncontrollable stress. In the DRN, rats that voluntary freewheel run compared to sedentary (standard housing) controls have an increase in 5HT/1A somatodendritic autoreceptor expression (mRNA & protein), a decrease in 5HT/1B axonal autoreceptor mRNA, and a decrease in serortonin transporter expression (SERT, mRNA & protein). Freewheel running also conveys resistance to stress-induced decreases in DRN 5HT/1A protein expression and results in an attenuation of DRN 5HT neural responses (cFos expression) to uncontrollable stress. The reduction in stress-induced cFos expression is mirrored in a subset of areas that interact with the DRN and are involved with LH, namely the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), the locus coeruleus (LC)-A5, and the amygdala (AMG). The changes in neural responses to stress are more robust after 6wks than after 3wks of freewheel running, and 6wks of freewheel running prevents LH behaviors (escape deficit & exaggerated freezing) after uncontrollable stress. The current proposal will test the hypothesis that the protective effect of physical activity on the development of learned helplessness is due to modulation of the DRN 5HT response. Both intra-DRN alterations and modulation of stress-induced interactions of the DRN with the AMG, BNST and LC-A5 could contribute to this effect. Together, these changes may prevent the intense DRN 5HT activation during uncontrollable stress, and/or the subsequent development & expression of LH.
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